How to Write a Speech

There are numerous books on how to write a speech. You will eventually find your own way.

Here are the basics of how to write a speech with a little twist. In writing a speech, it needs to meet several other aspects of speaker skills and meeting the audience. So the most important aspect of speech writing starts before you ever put a paper to a pen.

Once your booked and you have a theme, the speech preparation process starts.

It all starts with identifying your most wanted response. When you have completed your speech and walk off the podium, what do you hope to have accomplished. What is your most wanted response (MWR)?

Your MWR or Most Wanted Response

inform the audience

educate the audience

persuade the audience

motivate the audience

are you trying to sell

are you preselling

You do not need a big vocabulary to do this. You do not need fancy word use. What ever your purpose, if it is simple and easy to understand, you will go far.

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."- Oscar Wilde

Who Is the Audience?

Mature Audience Do you know how to speak to those with many years of life experience.

How to Write a Speech

With the preliminary information researched and filed in the gray matter of the little box atop your head, it is time to start writing.

Start with the body and work out.

The Body

Write down your main points. It should be about three and no more than five main points. Write them in a list or outline form.

With the list in place start to think how you would like to present it. If your main points are some sort of food to be served as part of a meal, how could you prepare it? Would you barbecue, fry, deep fry, bake, broil or boil?

The main points need to be prepared. Rather than cooking them, you will use words to finish the preparation. This can be in the form of proofs, demonstrating problem and solution, question and answer, or story and moral.

Use your five helping friends, who, what, how, why and when.

Once you have put it together, let it cook so to speak, by meditating on it. Think about presenting the material, the audience and your most wanted response.

The Introduction

Now create an introduction. Use your words to capture your audiences attention. Additionally use the introduction to tell the audience what your going to tell them. It may be an explanation of the organization of the material. It could be the start of the story.

The Conclusion

Wrap the speech up and to bring the speech full circle. If your goal is to motivate or persuade, make sure you have a call to action. If your speech is informative or teaching, summarize the points and the purpose.